France maintains hundreds of troops in Burkina Faso, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Chad and Gabon and smaller numbers in its other former colonies. The bogus justification is always ‘countering the growing threat from extremist/terrorist/jihadist groups’. In reality the Sahel region’s strategic value is not only its location between the massive oil and gas fields of North and West Africa but also its rich gold and uranium reserves. In 2021, the US had 29 military bases in 15 different African countries or territories, mostly in the Sahelian states in West Africa, as well as the Horn of Africa in the east. In 2008, Robert Moeller, director of the FBI and US Africa Command (AFRICOM) admitted that ‘protecting the free flow of natural resources from Africa to the global market is one of AFRICOM’s guiding principles’. France is also determined to defend its interests in Africa.
The forceful response of the imperialist powers to the coup in Niger is a reflection of the growing inter-imperialist rivalries. The dominant European imperialist powers, while vocal about the military influence of Russia, are really more concerned about the economic challenge from the US and China, and the EU’s ability to plunder Africa’s resources for the green energy revolution, unhindered by rivals. The UNCTAD World Investment Report 2022 shows that European capitalists in 2020 remained by far the largest holders of foreign assets in Africa (FDI stock), led by the United Kingdom ($65bn), France ($60bn), Netherlands ($49bn) followed by the US ($48bn) and China ($43bn). Russian FDI flows to Africa in 2021 were less than 1% of the total, and its trade ($18bn) with Africa was tiny compared to EU ($295bn) and Chinese ($254bn) trade.
In October 2023 the EU will finalise a plan to send more military forces to West Africa at the invitation of Benin and Ghana. The EU is concerned ‘that jihadist groups … will expand their activities from the Sahel region towards the southern coastal countries along the Gulf of Guinea, thus further spreading instability’ (Die Welt am Sonntag, 27 August).
This is to counter Russian security agreements mainly through private military contractors such as Wagner Group. Pursuing its own imperialist interests in the region, Russia has signed bilateral military, economic and security cooperation agreements with several African states. At the 2023 Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg in July, participants agreed that a new permanent Russian-African security mechanism would be established to ‘combat terrorism and extremism’. Russian military support has undermined French attempts to restore full neo-colonial control over Central African Republic (CAR) and Mali.
Operation Barkhane
The destruction of Libya by the NATO imperialist alliance in 2011 led to chaos throughout West Africa. In 2013 France launched Operation Serval in Mali following the collapse of the government there; in 2014 Operation Barkhane was expanded into Burkina Faso and Niger. Also in 2013, Operation Sangaris deployed 1,600 French and 6,000 African neo-colonial troops to CAR to secure its resources and overthrow then President Djotodia who had seized power in a coup that year, overthrowing France’s puppet, François Bozizé. In 2017 troops of the ‘G5 Sahel’ of Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Chad, Mali and Niger were deployed in the region under French control. In 2020 this was augmented by an EU special forces Takuba Task Force. None of these military interventions succeeded in resolving the insecurity, banditry or ‘terrorism’ in the region. Conflict has spread from Mali to Niger and Burkina Faso. Violence levels in the three countries have risen each year since 2017, leaving thousands dead. There are now about 25 active militant Islamist groups operating in Africa, up from just five in 2010.
Mali
Military governments have come to power through coups in recent years in Mali and Burkina Faso – both neighbours of Niger. Following the NATO assault on Libya in 2011, many Tuareg communities living in Libya, as well as battle-hardened fighters who had gone to defend the Gaddafi-led government, fled back to Mali with arms from the Libyan state and began a military campaign for a separate Tuareg state in northern Mali called ‘Azawad’. They were organised into the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) and routed the Malian military in 2012. The Malian government was then overthrown by military officers who believed its response to the Tuareg rebellion was inadequate. France intervened to stop the MNLA advancing southwards. Many civilians were killed and Muslim communities such as Fulani or Peul were stigmatised as ‘jihadist’. Britain assisted the French and EU military missions in Mali. Following French and ECOWAS sanctions the military leaders agreed in 2013 to step aside and allow elections to take place. These were won by Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, another puppet of French imperialism. France refused to let Keïta negotiate with the jihadist groups but was keen for negotiations with the secessionist Tuareg MNLA, whom the Mali army blame for the war in the country which allowed jihadists to take control of northern Mali in 2012. Keïta won the 2018 presidential elections with a second round turn-out of 34%. Mass protests began in June 2020 demanding Keïta resign, mainly due to his acquiescence to the French military occupation of Mali; these were met with brutal repression. Keïta was subsequently overthrown in August 2020 in another coup. France has collaborated with Tuareg militias that have committed atrocities against Muslim communities. The new Malian military leader Colonel Assimi Goïta subsequently ordered French troops to leave Mali, with the last leaving in August 2022. The EU’s Takuba Task Force also withdrew. The imperialist forces simply crossed the border from Mali into Niger. About 1,000 Wagner Group fighters have teamed up with Mali’s military leaders since 2021.
Burkina Faso
Roch Marc Kaboré came to power in Burkina Faso after former president Blaise Compaoré was overthrown by a popular uprising in 2014. Compaoré was the man who led the assassination of revolutionary Burkinabe president Thomas Sankara in 1987, with the collaboration of the US, France and Britain. In 2022 there were two coups in Burkina Faso: Paul-Henri Damiba overthrew Kaboré in January; then in September, Captain Ibrahim Traore overthrew Damiba.
The coups are a continuation of the social explosion that removed Compaoré. Damiba was removed due to his inability to deal with the Islamists. The jihadist insurgency had spread to Burkina Faso in 2015 thanks to France’s intervention in Mali. Nearly 40% of the country is out of state control. Seven years of violence have left over 10,000 people dead, and over two million internally displaced. In January 2023 French troops were given one month to leave the country. 400 troops had been in the country since 2018. They decamped to Niger. The two countries have proposed erasing their common border and forming a federation.
In addition to being a hub for seasonal and regional migration into Libya and Algeria, Niger is also a nerve centre for drug smuggling into Europe, all with the active collusion of France, Italy and the deposed Nigerien authorities. Niger is key to US and EU imperialist strategy in West Africa. The US has six military outposts or bases in Niger. The EU’s European Peace Facility in 2022 set up a military partnership mission with the Nigerien army. One can understand the hysterical imperialist reaction to the very real threat of losing their neo-colony.
Charles Chinweizu
FIGHT RACISM! FIGHT IMPERIALISM! 296 October/November 2023
